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Vision of Management in the Management of University Social Responsibility
Author: Juan Carlos Pernía
Universidad
Centroccidental Lisandro Alvarado, UCLA
Lara,
Venezuela
Abstract
The administrative and managerial sciences generate spaces for research
on the contribution of universities in the training of socially responsible
professionals. The purpose of this essay is to generate a reflection on the
management view of the University Social Responsibility (RSU). The methodical
process used to collect the information is supported by the documentary review
of some theoretical sketches related to the constructs of the RSU, such as
care, management, use of goods and services in pursuit of the benefit of the
common good of all the citizens; which should be oriented towards new
managerial alternatives that are more efficient to adapt to the complex
dynamics of society's growth. Hence, higher education organizations have the
responsibility to take measures to protect the environment, in addition to
contributing to the welfare of society, as a whole that must respond to
organizational interests but also the sustainable development of the country.
It was concluded that university social responsibility should focus on
promoting a critical and reflective approach by academic managers to go beyond
their training jobs, without disciplinary barriers that assume an unstructured
attitude of complexity, creating new spaces of present management and future of
the academic organization aimed at graduating professionals with relevant
knowledge to the demands of contemporary society, people committed to improving
the quality of collective life from a planetary view.
Keywords: management;
prospective; social responsibility; university.
Date Received: 07-11-2017 |
Date Acceptance: 20-01-2018 |
Visión de la Gestión en
la Gerencia de la Responsabilidad Social Universitaria
Resumen
Las
ciencias administrativas en las gestiones gerenciales generan espacios para la
investigación sobre la contribución de las universidades en la formación de
profesionales socialmente responsables. El propósito de este ensayo es generar
una reflexión acerca de la visión de la gestión en la gerencia de la
Responsabilidad Social Universitaria (RSU). El proceso metódico utilizado para el acopio de
la información, se apoya en la revisión documental de algunos esbozos teóricos
relacionados con los constructos de la RSU, como el cuidado, manejo,
utilización de los bienes y servicios en procura del beneficio del bien común
de todos los ciudadanos; las cuales deben orientarse hacia nuevas alternativas
gerenciales que sean más eficientes para adaptarse a la dinámica compleja del
crecimiento de la sociedad. De ahí que
las organizaciones de educación superior, tienen una corresponsabilidad
de tomar las medidas de protección de medio
ambiente, además de contribuir con el bienestar de la sociedad, como un todo mancomunado
que debe responder a los intereses organizacionales, pero también del
desarrollo sustentable del país. Se concluyó que la responsabilidad
social universitaria debe promover una perspectiva reflexiva de los gerentes
académicos para trascender la labor formativa, desde una mirada prospectiva
estratégica en un pensamiento sistémico, sin barreras disciplinaria que asuma
una actitud desestructurada de la complejidad, creando nuevos espacios de
gestión presente y futura de la organización académica orientada a egresar
profesionales con conocimientos pertinentes a las demandas de la sociedad
contemporánea, personas comprometidas con mejorar la calidad de vida colectiva
desde una visión planetaria.
Palabras clave: gestión;
prospectiva; responsabilidad social; universidad.
Fecha de Recepción: 07-11-2017 |
Fecha de Aceptación: 20-01-2018 |
1.
Introduction
Today's societies are in a process of transition, from
a productive and economic activity based especially on industry to one based on
knowledge, where the processing of information and the communication of symbols
become the main productive and productive activity. economic and social
development through the training of professionals capable of generating
strategic plans for the development of contemporary society.
The strategic plans of the management must be oriented
to guarantee the supply of necessary resources for the satisfaction of their
felt needs that encompass all aspects of the life of the citizens. These should
be linked in form and content, to social aspects, of course should consider the
economic in terms of strategic rationalization of sustainability.
The strategic rationality of the manager, has its
tactical base in the personal skills, with technical-administrative-human
domain to project the desired future. It is a vision of the future able to
train professionals with an axiological profile to assume social responsibility
through Integral actions through complex relationships, which in addition to
being random, have reciprocal effects within the university organizations with
society which belong from a planetary perspective of coexistence.
In this sense, the purpose of this essay is to
generate a reflection about the management vision in the management of
University Social Responsibility (RSU). The methodical process used to collect
the information that is the basis of this study is based on the documentary
review of some sketches related to the theoretical constructs of study, which
are presented below.
2. Analysis
of Theoretical Approaches
The trends, social, political and administrative
during the last decades, have created new dynamics in organizations, which
should be oriented towards new advanced management alternatives that are more
efficient to adapt to the complex dynamics of the growth of society in such a
way, of go adapting to the scientific and technical changes that allow the
management of the processes in the search for efficiency, of the
techno-administrative-productive operations, in terms of supporting the
management of managers within public or private institutions such as the case
of universities.
In accordance with the approaches of Drucker (2012),
in the administration of the university organization:
The management is a position held by the director of a company which has
in its multiple functions, in addition to representing society in front of third
parties and coordinating all resources through the planning process,
organization, direction and control in order to achieve established objectives
(p.97).
Therefore, within this dynamic the manager in the
public administration in many cases fulfills various functions that requires
him to act as supervisor, controller, auditor, among other actions inherent to
his position. In this managerial context, the university organizations also
develop actions related to the management and control of the techno-administrative
processes. According to Barroso (2000): management involves the processes of
planning, organization, selection and control, as well as dealing with the
uncertainty and complexity of interactions both within and outside the
organization, related to quality management from a perspective of social
responsibility.
In the words of Vega (2009): social responsibility is
related to the "commitment that the organization has to the society in which
it develops its activities, either as a social institution, as a particular
economic organization or as the set of individuals that comprise it (p.21). In
recent times, it has acquired an ethical dimension that every organization or
institution should incorporate within its policies and organizational
structure, serving as management strategies in its daily activity.
According to Benavides, Alameda and Villagra (2002):
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), recognizes the importance of
"developing value systems that reflect the willingness to assume these
responsibilities instead of transferring them to others" (p.42).
Therefore, it represents the whole corporate strategies, aimed at producing
benefits in the activities of both the company and the society, aimed at
promoting the development of the community, and to generate in their human
talent a greater commitment to their co-responsible productive work. Also, in
the university context, Díaz (2009), affirms that:
The university as a center of development and promotion of knowledge has
the responsibility of promoting a better awareness of global problems such as
the damage caused to the environment, technological risks, economic crisis,
poverty, hunger, among others, through the promotion, within its formation, of
a complex and plural thought, based on solidarity, ethics,
cooperation-scientific, humanistic and technological collaboration. Today's
society advances to the extent that it generates, appropriates and uses
knowledge, created or obtained locally, to meet the needs of development and
build its own future (p.12).
The university as the main producer of knowledge
acquires a great responsibility in which it is necessary to invest resources as
Didriksson (2016a) points out: in order to produce innovation and radical
changes that respond to internal needs (research, new forms of management and
organization) and external (contact of the university with society), depending
on the current realities and their vision of the future in these organizations.
Consequently, vision of the future in the words of
Godet (2007): it represents a prospective conception, which constitutes an
anticipated (pre-active) representation, that configures a proactive condition
to manage from the management, the desirable actions to achieve the aims of the
organization. With the purpose of contributing to the formulation of the
concept, in this document I propose that it is a discipline that, based on the
collective set of thoughts, interests, feelings and personal and collective
sensations, seeks to prepare the scenarios, based on a methodology, from a
structured image for the construction of professional training projects as
corresponds to the university.
In the same order of ideas, González and López (2014):
sustain the decisive role of the university in the social, economic, political
and cultural development of a country; for which López and Puevo (2016): point
out that the training of professionals with a high reflective, critical level
and a solid ethical base is required. Taking this statement as a starting
point, we could highlight a concept closely linked to business, better known
and widespread in recent times. There is talk of an ethical organizational
dimension with a vision of promoting collective well-being in their daily
activity.
In recent years, there has been growing interest from
communities and society; De Fátima, Baptista and Contreras (2012): explain
should be carried out through a process of reflection about the importance and
impact of citizen participation, solidarity and ethics in increasingly complex
environments, where problems prevail economic, social and environmental factors
that hinder the development of societies. This feeling of responsibility about
the individual and collective impact of the actions represents the beginning of
the activity and definition of social responsibility.
In agreement with Didriksson (2016b): university
institutions in Latin America from a projection in the XXI century, are subject
to contemporary social demands, which requires defining a clear vision and
policy, leadership in the management of the management of functions of
teaching, research and extension that address social responsibility.
In correspondence with what was raised about social
responsibility, from the approaches of Sanchez (2007), makes "a call to
institutions of higher education to reconstruct and re-elaborate culture and
knowledge to develop a more just and humane society" (p.12). This
abstraction leads the universities to take a reflection on their incursion into
social responsibility, not only because they are organizations, but because the
professionals required by the companies are trained in them, in these work
areas they will promote an ethical vision, contributing with common good and
social justice.
Similarly, Romero (2008): notes that university social
responsibility "consists of placing the person at the center of our
concern and take it to teaching, research and decisions taken as part of the
University and more beyond it" (p.5). Therefore, its approach is inclusive
and complex, coming to emphasize and stimulate the relationship with the
environment, based on relevance and social commitment, with a reconstruction of
the curriculum in emerging needs along with the integration and
internationalization of education.
In the words of Vallaeys (2014a): Latin American level
has taken giant steps, due to its more comprehensive, complex and comprehensive
position compared to the practice implemented in North America and Europe. In
these areas, they have focused on addressing aspects related to the environment
(sustainable campus), with little attention to training processes or linking
and no attention to cognitive and epistemological processes.
In this orientation, the need to innovate in
university education, through the functions of teaching, research and
extension, promotes a social projection, as well as the expansion of science,
technology and national culture; defending autonomy from a novel trend of
globalization of higher education.
University social responsibility has now been placed
as a global movement, implanted in the management system of the houses of
study, as a necessity before the vertiginous development of society in all
ethical aspects, with some axiological references of training Vallaeys
Professional (2014b): points out the importance of an educational policy
through responsible management, capable of assuming the RSU, through a
participatory dialogue with the social environment, to improve its quality and
promote sustainable human development.
In this orientation Villegas (2017): points out that
social responsibility implies the development of "behaviors and behaviors
in accordance with regulations, laws that regulate their operation, where they
can function without adverse effects on society" (p.294). Hence, the
importance of focusing the academic discourse in order to deploy an ethical
education of all the people who live in the universities in a way that
according to Izarra (2016): the impact on the management, on the teaching
activity, on the knowledge generation resizes the activities associated with
the management of the RSU, through programs of attention to the immediate
communities of each university institution.
According to Senge (2005a): the sensitivity of doing
management must be identified in the search for "subtle interconnections
that give living systems a unique character" (p.91). This complex scenario
must be approached from a systemic thinking of management and therefore of the
prospective management of the RSU, to sustain the ability to drive the
necessary changes that make up the various functions, in virtue of improving
the quality of professional training.
In this way, the initiatives of University Social
Responsibility (RSU), recognizes in the management of the management of the
extension projects, the ethical character of the academic community, due to its
incidence in the institutional daily life and the image that these houses of
studies has in the conformation of the professional profile, beyond the
development of the formal contents of experiences inside and outside the
classroom from a social co-responsibility that must be projected to the desired
future.
Forero and Perilla (2004, p.14): explain that a
prospective vision of the managerial environment represents the ability to
manage the information of the environment in favor of their profession, the
organizations for which they work and individuals in general; Therefore, it is
essential to see the possibility of putting together the university
organizational puzzle, from a new perspective that allows visualizing the
present reality with a projection of the future, seen as a whole.
Hence, Senge (2005b): argues that "systemic
thinking is a discipline to see modalities" (p.91). Therefore, it serves
as a frame of reference to see internal and external interrelations, instead of
simplifying the dynamics of university leadership, awakening the capacity of
the managers of these institutions to assume a social responsibility.
Therefore, social responsibility in the management of
university management, must use the specific tools and techniques to bring
about a change in organizational actions, as well as those involving the
academic task in the training of future professionals, which translates into
the decoding of possible patterns of change in ethical behavior co-responsible
in the organization.
From a perspective of university social
responsibility, it must be destined to unfold an academic management directed to
reach the aims of the management of the superior education to respond to the
demands of the society a vision of future coherent with the planetary
coexistence of the citizens.
3. Findings of the Theoretical Review
The analysis of the theoretical
constructs, represents the base of the results in this essay from a synthesis
of the most significant elements that contribute to a relational scheme of the
prospective management of the University Social Responsibility (RSU), as shown
in the figure 1.
Figure 1. Relational scheme of the
prospective management of the RSU.
SEE IN THE ORIGINAL VERSION
Source: The Author (2017).
Figure 1, shows the whole relational scheme of
prospective management in the management of University Social Responsibility
(RSU), as far as teaching is concerned, emphasis should be placed on the
training of teachers in the approach of the RSU, to promote the specialties
project-based learning with an openness to the social community as a source of
meaningful teaching and practice applied to the solution of real problems.
Likewise, the research must promote interdisciplinary agreements from their
respective specialties; and the extension would be consubstantiated a synergy
of knowledge articulated with socio-educational interactions.
In this synergistic connotation, the university
socially assumes the responsibility of promoting educational values with an
ethical organizational academic vision, from which the management of its
teaching, research and extension functions is impregnated, in accordance with
the university management policies, the initiatives of RSU respond
axiologically to the ethical model that is part of the professional curriculum,
which is characterized by the academic action co-responsible, beyond the
programmatic contents, without forgetting the importance of projecting them to
the desired future, in terms of responding to the demands of the globalized
society.
In correspondence with the previous approaches, the pedagogical
vision of the RSU, should be directed to promote ethical practices from a
prospective management, should raise the functions of (a) teaching, from an
integral formation and of quality; (b) the investigation, with a pertinent
approach to the demands of society; and (c) an extension, linked to social,
environmental and planetary environments. In short, it is about integrating the
academic work aimed at graduating professionals with relevant knowledge to the
demands of contemporary society through strategic management capable of
assuming shared responsibility.
4. Conclusions
Once the exploration of the theoretical constructs was
completed, the following conclusions were reached: First, the technological
competences of the teacher for the innovation of educational praxis, requires
besides the vocation of service, to study the new didactic paradigms to display
their reflective capacity and assume the commitment to acquire the
technological skills to assume the requirements of a global society.
Second, social responsibility represents a state of
consciousness, which can occur individually, assumed by each of the elements
that make up society. From this perspective, ethics does not appear as a brake
on the interest of the organization but on the contrary, as a push for its
advantage and operating modality of a greater articulation between the
functions of teaching, research and extension.
Third, one of the challenges faced by the managers of
business organizations is precisely to assume a prospective strategic
management that orients their efforts with the incorporation of other
alternatives that require changing roles for what is required to raise the
levels of organizational maturity.
Finally, the university social responsibility must
promote a reflective perspective of the academic managers to transcend the
formative work, from a strategic prospective perspective in a systemic thought,
without disciplinary barriers that assumes an unstructured attitude of the
complexity, creating new spaces of present management and future of the
academic organization oriented to graduate professionals with relevant
knowledge to the demands of contemporary society, people committed to improving
the quality of collective life from a planetary vision.
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Juan Carlos Pernía
e-mail: jpernia@ucla.edu.ve
Born in San Cristóbal, Táchira
state, Venezuela. Lawyer Universidad Católica del Táchira, Magister Scientiarum
Accountant Mention Audit at the Universidad Centroccidental “Lisandro Alvarado”
(UCLA). University Professor by
Opposition Contest Category Associate Professor. Certified speaker Universidad
Central de Venezuela. Doctorate in Advanced Management from Fermín Toro
University (UFT). Investigator.
The
content of this manuscript is disseminated under a Creative
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- Original Version in Spanish -
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29394/Scientific.issn.2542-2987.2018.3.8.17.319-333